A Bundle of Reeds: Art and Cosmotechnics in the wake of The Tigris

In 1977 the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl organized an expedition called The Tigris to build and sail an ancient style of reed vessel down the Tigris river in Iraq, out across the Arabian Sea to Pakistan and then onwards to the Gulf of Aden.

Fifty years on, one of the original Tigris crew members, an Iraqi artist called Rashad Salim, has developed his own form of ‘expeditionary art’ in which Europe is no longer the main point of departure. Salim’s recent work, together with his collaborator Hannah Lewis, has taken one of the most elemental acts of making – the gathering and bundling of reeds – as a concrete metaphor for reviving the craft traditions of Iraq, devastated by three major wars since the time of the Tigris.

This new OCA publication uses the coordinates of the Tigris expedition and Salim’s subsequent work along the rivers of Iraq as a matrix to explore changing conceptions of art, collectivity and technology. Bringing together a range of artists and thinkers, most with a connection to the Arabian Sea region, it draws on new challenges to Eurocentric orthodoxies, from Salim’s ‘expeditionary art’ to ‘oceanic cosmopolitanism’ (Dilip Menon) and ‘cosmotechnics’ (Yuk Hui). The volume will also reflect on the global relevance of contemporary Iraq which, as Salim has written, “maps out the worst political, social, and environmental fears that threaten us and our planet.”

Contributors including Rashad Salim and Hannah Lewis, Dilip Menon, Simon Starling & Juan Carlos Arratia Esteban, Pelin Tan and more

Edited by Rana Issa and Mike Sperlinger

Published by OCA in collaboration with Archive Books

OCA will host several events in conjunction with the launch of the publication:
Two in Oslo at Nasjonalbiblioteket and Kunstnernes Hus on Oct. 30 and 31, 2026, and one in London at Ibraaz on November 5, 2026. Details to be announced.